356 ASSINNIBOINE AND SASKATCHEWAN EXPEDITION. 



sippi Eiver and the Atlantic is that of great fertility, and 

 as a whole, in its natural condition, with some exceptions 

 at the west, is well supplied with timber. The portion 

 also on the western side of the Mississippi, as far as the 

 98th meridian, including the States of Texas, Louisiana, 

 Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota, and portions of 

 the territory of Kansas and Nebraska, are fertile, though 

 abounding in prairies and subject occasionally to droughts. 

 But the whole space to the west, between the 98th 

 meridian and the Eocky Mountains, denominated the 

 Great American Plains, is a barren waste, over which the 

 eye may roam to the extent of the visible horizon with 

 scarcely an object to break the monotony. 



" From the Eocky Mountains to the Pacific, with the 

 exception of the rich but narrow belt along the ocean, 

 the country may also be considered, in comparison with 

 other portions of the United States, a wilderness unfitted 

 for the uses of the husbandman ; although in some of the 

 mountain valleys, as at Salt Lake, by means of irrigation, 

 a precarious supply of food may be obtained sufficient to 

 sustain a considerable population, provided they can be 

 induced to submit to privations from which American 

 citizens generally would shrink. The portions of the 

 mountain system further south are equally inhospitable ? 

 though they have been represented to be of a different 

 character. In traversing this region, whole clays are fre- 

 quently passed without meeting a rivulet or spring of 

 water to slake the thirst of the weary traveler. 



" We have stated that the entire region west of the 

 98th degree of west longitude, with the exception of a 

 small portion of western Texas and the narrow border 

 along the Pacific, is a country of comparatively little value 

 to the agriculturist ; and, perhaps, it will astonish the 

 reader if we direct his attention to the fact that this line, 



